Quotes in category: “Life”:

The future is called "perhaps," which is the only possible thing to call the future.  And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you. 

It's never too late to be who you might have been. 

They don't even know what it is to be a fan. Y'know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts. 

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character... Would you slow down? Or speed up?

You can be anything you want. But you have to take a risk sometimes. Reach out. One thing I can tell you for sure is this: we only regret what we don't do in life. 

We’re liars. Think about it: why do people buy these things? It’s not because they want to say how they feel, people buy cards because they can’t say how they feel or they’re afraid to. We provide the service that lets them off the hook. You know what? I say to hell with it. Lets level with America. Or at least let them speak for themselves, right? I mean, what does this say? “Congratulations on your new baby” how about “Congratulations on your new baby, guess that’s it for hanging out? Nice knowing ya”. How about this one with all the pretty hearts? I think I know where this one’s going, “Happy Valentine’s Day sweetheart, I love you” That’s sweet. Ain’t love grand? This is exactly what I’m talking about. What does that even mean; love? Do you know? If somebody gave me this card, I would eat it. It’s these cards, and the movies and the pop songs – they're to blame for all the lies and the heartache, everything. And we’re responsible; I’m responsible. I think we do a bad thing here. People should be able to say how they feel- how they really feel; not you know, some words that some strangers put in their mouths, like love, that don’t mean anything.

Yes, terrible things happen, but sometimes those terrible things; they save you.

Everyone knows that seasons change; it's unavoidably obvious. But for some reason, everyone tries to avoid the fact that people do too.

One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.

Life sucks in a good way: falling in love, falling in hate, getting hurt, and getting laid; what's one without the other? But when it comes to the ritual of growing up, sometimes you smile because you're happy, and othertimes you smile just because you survived. Yet in the end, a smile is a smile.

Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.

That was rough. Thing to do now is try and forget it... I guess I don't quite mean that. It's not a thing you can forget. Maybe not ever a thing you want to forget... life's like that sometimes. Now and then for no good reason a man can figure out life will just haul off and knock him flat, slam him against the
ground so hard it seems like all his insides is busted. But it's not all like that. A lot of it's mighty fine, and you can't afford to waste the good part frettin' about the bad. That makes it all bad. Sure, I know- saying it's one thing and feeling it's another. But I'll tell you a trick that's sometimes abig help. When you start looking around for something good to take the place of the bad, as a general rule, you can find it.

If he had learned anything... it was that you can't ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence. That's all anything ever is. Nothing more than coincidence.

There is nothing more important than friendships that endure, especially in a world that insists on changing.

Some things are hard to write about. After something happens to you, you go to write it down, and either you over dramatize it, or underplay it, exaggerate the wrong parts or ignore the important ones. At any rate, you never write it quite the way you want to.

My thoughts about the world were shaken. Like driving along a bumpy road and losing control of the steering wheel, tossing you, just a tad, off the road. The wheels kick up some dirt, but you're able to pull it back. Yet no matter how tightly you grip the wheel, no matter how hard you try to drive straight, something keeps jerking you to the side. You have so little control over anything anymore. And at some point, the struggle becomes too much, too tiring, and you consider letting go. Allowing tragedy... or whatever to happen.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. 

People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become.  And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead.

"Sometimes being a good friend means saying not hing"
"I'm Just supposed to watch her make a mistake?"
"Sometimes, yes. And then you stand by to pick up the pieces."

You know the great thing, though, is that change can be so constant you don't even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don't even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is. Or it can just blow you away; make you something different in an instant. It happened to me. 

People have a habit of inventing fictions they will believe wholeheartedly in order to ignore the truth they cannot accept. 

If for one minute you think you're better than a sixteen year old girl in a Green Day t-shirt, you are sorely mistaken. Remember the first time you went to a show and saw your favourite band. You wore their shirt, and sang every word. You didn't know anything about scene politics, haircuts, or what was cool. All you knew was that this music made you feel different from anyone you shared a locker with. Someone finally understood you. This is what music is about.

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.